We last saw our team dealing with the horrific death of one of their number in the traditional RPG party manner: dividing up his stuff.
Between the recovery from injuries and recovery from major cyberware surgery, the team took several days to rest and recuperate. Once everyone was well enough to get out of bed, a small memorial service was held for Ricky where they cremated the small amount of him left over once all reusable parts were removed. Requiem cried.
Not long after this some dubious teenagers showed up outside the house. After some questioning, they were identified as members of the Orphans, wanting to offer thanks on behalf of Dove, their leader and the sister of the woman they'd rescued. She wanted to come and thank them personally. We agreed to it, providing everybody stayed outside the house.
We were a little concerned by how easily they'd tracked us down, given how we were all dressed as Bushido members at the time, and how they recognised Requiem, given that she'd just got a new face. They didn't appear to be hostile, however, and they went away without any violence ensuing.
Rolando did a broadcast with some of the footage from the fight, carefully focusing attention on Marlon's superb performance as Shogun while avoiding showing much of the rest of us, but pointing out how Ricky Sixx was brutally murdered by the Stomp Street gang after he heroically attempted to rescue an innocent woman.
After a few more days of rest, we got word that gang warfare between the Bushido and Stomp Street was imminent. We decided this was clearly the kind of thing that our pirate news station should be reporting on. First we made a few phone calls. Marlon called his family (the Glitterboys) because he wanted a sniper rifle and they happened to have one available. Requiem called her friends in the police to let them know about the heavy weaponry amassing in the combat zone. Then the team packed up a minimal amount of kit (so as not to be in a recognisable van) and headed for where everything was about to go down.
We found a good spot to watch the fight in a warehouse. Rolando started dual-wielding: one camera in his hand and his second eye camera for backup. Requiem also activated the camera in her hat (Requicam) and started assessing the area for threats. Thanks to her exceptional combat sense and enhanced cyber vision, she managed to spot someone wearing a ghost suit in the opposite warehouse. Her initial call of 'sniper!' got a response from Marlon with his new rifle, and her further claims that it was an actual ghost and they were being haunted seemed to just confuse things further. But the Bushido were busy laying anti-personnel mines, which was definitely worth filming.
Marlon found his new role: Bross Kemp. The sniper issue seemed to finally get through to him, and he took up a position against a wall, concealed from threats, while claiming he wasn't scared, just cautious. Rolando continued filming, taking a moment to get someone else to hold the camera so he could appear in shot briefly. This was clearly due to him needing to establish his presence for credibility purposes, and not at all due to his latest cyberware additions giving him a raging ego.
But he was back to filming the scene below when he was suddenly tackled to the ground by Requiem. Initially he assumed that with Ricky gone, she'd started obsessing over him instead (after all, he was handsome and in his opinion, amazing) but the sniper round hitting him in the shoulder suggested it had more to do with her combat sense after all.
Requiem returned fire with her Arnos, hitting the sniper in the head and torso and causing them to drop to the floor out of sight. Rolando returned to filming, while Bross Kemp narrated the carnage below.
It wasn't long before an AV appeared, heading for the roof of the opposite building. Presumably the sniper had Trauma Team cover. Some of the gang fighters below started firing at the AV, causing it to crash onto the roof. Quinton decided that as a doctor, it would be a good idea to go and help out, so with the traditional shout of 'parkour!' he ran and jumped his way from our building to the one opposite. Over the radio we heard him attempt to persuade the Trauma Team members that he was a doctor and could help. We all made notes about how insulting people to their faces did not always go well when attempting to be persuasive. And also that having unconsciously started imitating the voice of Bross Kemp probably didn't help either.
In the street, heavy weapons had been brought out, and despite having brought mono-katanas to a missile fight, Bushido seemed to be getting the better of it. On the other roof, further Trauma Team AVs with miniguns arrived, while Quinton, despite the terrible impression he had made, was allowed to assist them with the patient. He resisted the urge to take out the sniper while nobody was looking, but did get a picture of him and a copy of his ID.
The carnage continued, and we decided it was time to get out of the way. Bross Kemp lead the way, continuing to insist that he wasn't scared, just cautious and reminding us that the gangers were all slags.
We returned home with some great footage to edit and broadcast. 'Bross Kemp On Gangs' sounded like a great idea for future broadcasts as well, reporting on gangs of the combat zone. Perhaps we could even use it to make progress in our actual job. What was that again?
Will the team actually remember what they're supposed to be doing and get back somewhere near the actual plot? Will Marlon be able to keep the same character long enough to film further episodes of Bross Kemp On Gangs? What does a Mr Studd implant look like anyway? Find out (or not) in the next exciting episode of Ramos Reportage!
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